You’re Treating Ageing Skin All Wrong. Here’s Why.

The number one concern most clients seek the expertise of a beauty therapist for is ageing skin, but few therapists are aware that wrinkles are only half the problem.

“I don’t exercise or really have a skincare regime. I’m just lucky!”

Oh please. Gag.

Honestly, if we hear one more celeb tout this insane piece of tripe we may actually vomit.

When you’re in your 40s and 50s and still look the way you did when Nirvana was on the radio and feverishly teased hair was considered attractive, you’ve had some help. We don’t care what Demi Moore says.

You’re doing it all wrong

But while clients frequent salons every day in pursuit of that very piece of professional expertise, few therapists are steering them in the right direction.

That’s because most treatments that centre around anti-ageing focus on wrinkles, but few of us pay attention to the fact that some of the youngest and most attractive 40 and 50-somethings who seem to have defied the hands of time, actually have fine lines.

And those that don’t have them at all just look plain – for lack of a better euphemism – strange.

Toning it down

A handful of skilled therapists have known for years now that the secret to looking effortlessly youthful is neither in ‘good genes’ (please Demi, you’re just insulting us) or to being completely wrinkle-free (Megan, you look like you saw a ghost and the wind changed).

The biggest impact on a youthful, attractive face is none of the above, it’s skin tone. Scientists have been pointing it out for decades: the more even the skin tone, the more healthy and thus desirable we appear to potential mates on a primitive level.

In an Austraian study which asked participants to rate photos of 169 women between the ages of 10 and 70 with varying levels of skin tone evenness, models with the most even tone received significantly higher ratings for attractiveness and health and were judged as younger, while models with uneven tone were judged to be older.

Rethinking ageing skin

For the most noticeable results, skincare expert and director of Image Skincare, Dr Marc A. Ronert, recommends using clinically tested skin brightening products designed to target a plethora of causes behind uneven skin tone, including age spots, blotchiness, redness and hyperpigmentation.

“Image Skincare’s new Iluma line combines innovative technology with potent ingredients to offer the most effective results on the market for discoloration caused by hyperpigmentation, sun damage, age spots, or rosacea,” says Ronert.

“It harnesses the power of a multitude of ingredients, such as stabilising vitamin C, Synovea HR – which is four times more effective than hydroquinone for skin lightening – and natural skin lighteners like mulberry extract, licorice, daisy flower, willow bark, bearberry and embolic.”

Ronert also advises taking note of a product’s delivery system, for ensuring key ingredients make it all the way to the deepest layers of the skin.

“Vectorize-Technology, a new product delivery system exclusive to Image, ensures potent ingredients are deposited into the dermal layer of the skin, resulting in up to 48 hours of time-released nourishment for deeper penetration.”

Getting it right

While it’s true that most of us immediately relate ageing with wrinkles, some of the most pesky little things to try and budge without ending up looking stretched out and eerily shiny, skin tone has a far greater impact on our ability to appear youthful.

Indeed some of the world’s most beautiful ageing women like Julianne Moore and Helen Mirren haven’t tried to escape the natural process of fine lines and wrinkles, but maintain their youthful glow through picture-perfect complexions thanks to decades of dedication to skincare.

As Coco Chanel once famously said, “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty, it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.”